Biden Officials Used Codeword To Hide Loans To Major Abortion Provider

Biden administration officials may have broken the law by concealing small business loans to Planned Parenthood, a senator said Monday.

Small Business Administration officials disbursed and forgave loans to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates even after the agency determined that the group is not a small business that would be eligible. Top officials, including Biden SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman, concealed their maneuvering on the topic by substituting the words Planned Parenthood with “Benghazi” in emails, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who chairs the committee that oversees the agency, revealed Monday.

“We now know that after the SBA Biden officials met, planned and strategized (over ‘Benghazi’), keeping the White House involved, approximately $90 million in Planned Parenthood SBA PPP loans and interest on the loans were forgiven by the Biden administration,” she said.

Ernst asked the Department of Justice to investigate the officials under a statute that says anyone who attempts to conceal a federal record can be imprisoned for up to three years, according to a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire.

In the early days of the 2020 pandemic, the first Trump administration’s Small Business Administration sent more than $80 million in COVID loans reserved for small businesses to Planned Parenthood and 38 affiliates after they “self-certified” as eligible.

More than 90 Republican members of Congress wrote to the agency, noting that “under the rules of the CARES ACT, a nonprofit that exceeds 500 employees, as Planned Parenthood did, was not a small business and should be deemed ‘disqualified from PPP loans.'” Under SBA rules, entities that are “affiliated” with a larger entity aren’t small businesses.

The next month, SBA sent letters to Planned Parenthood affiliates “informing them they were ineligible for SBA loans” and asking for “potential repayment.”

By the time Joe Biden entered the White House in February 2021, SBA still hadn’t gotten the money back, and Planned Parenthood affiliates later received a second round of payments, Ernst said.

In April 2021, Republicans demanded to know “the steps the agency took once Planned Parenthood affiliates were deemed ineligible for SBA loans,” she wrote.

That month, the SBA’s top lawyer, Peggy Hamilton, convened top honchos with an email subject line “Benghazi (PPP/PPH) Decisions.” The context suggested that Benghazi was a code word for Planned Parenthood.

The email tasked staff with “reviewing loans to non profit PPP applicants to decision whether affiliation bars eligibility… WH has been engaged. Need to inform WH as decisions are made.”

In a direct message, Hamilton reminded a colleague of the code, writing, “Can I schedule a meeting so we can decision Benghazi (Planned Parenthood)?”

“Yes, let’s talk Benghazi,” came the reply.

“It strains credulity to think SBA’s General Counsel Peggy Hamilton was doing anything other than hiding her Planned Parenthood records from Congressional and public scrutiny and oversight,” Ernst wrote. “That’s not something she is allowed to do under federal law, and, as a lawyer for almost three decades, she knew that.”

As Republicans continued to press the agency to discuss the Planned Parenthood issue and “the agency’s overall responsiveness” to Congress, officials kept using the coded email, Ernst said. The officials included Arthur Plews, who later became the agency’s chief of staff.

At a hearing in May 2021, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) pressed SBA Administration Guzman about $17 million in funding that went to Planned Parenthood affiliates after the agency said they weren’t eligible, saying, “You believe you are above the law … It looks like you are specifically hiding this information from us.”

Two days later, SBA officials used the Benghazi email chain to say they would “like to set up a meeting to discuss forgiveness.”

In June 2021, Administration Guzman herself set up a Microsoft Teams meeting called “Benghazi (PPP/PPH) Decisions,” records show.

Ernst noted, “If someone tried to search for government records related to Planned Parenthood’s loans and loan forgiveness … this meeting would not have appeared, as again it was concealed as Benghazi.”

“PPH” is not an acronym used for the abortion provider, which is sometimes initialized PPFA, for Planned Parenthood for America, she said.

“If other SBA Biden officials are complicit in conspiring with SBA’s General Counsel Peggy Hamilton and Administration Guzman to conceal or attempt to conceal federal records and evade public records retention laws, that is in clear violation of 18 U.S.C. S2017 and deserves investigation for potential Federal Records Act violations,” Ernst said.

Given the email’s note that “need to inform WH as decisions are made,” those conspirators could currently work in the White House, Ernst said.